Gary Devore's Blog, page 2
January 25, 2016
209 CE – A Year of Murder
I’ve finished the entire working draft of my next novel that is set during the year 209. It is a historical murder mystery with a cast of Romans, Greeks, and native Britons. It is called A Murder of Crows on the Wall, a title that references both the fact it takes place along Hadrian’s Wall in northern England and involves initiates of the mystery cult of the god Mithras (who were called ‘crows’).
For the past year, my head has been in the third century CE, specifically the autumn of 209. It...
January 24, 2016
Down on Downton
I accidentally encountered an episode of the final season of Downton Abbey last night. The TV was turned to PBS when an On Demand show ended so I let it continue in the background as I worked on the computer. I gave up watching Downton sometime in the third season because I’d grown annoyed at it and came to suspect its politics (plus after Dan Stevens’ Matthew Crawley character was killed off, why continue?). So last night’s season 6 episode was the first I’d seen since season 3.
Of course I...
December 23, 2015
Protected: Skyrim Mods
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Filed under: Uncategorized
October 31, 2015
This Year’s MST3K Halloween Playlist
Watching bad movies made hilarious in a marathon is my favorite Halloween tradition. This year’s choices:
Shari Belafonte, Mr Ben Murphy (the Ben Murphyist), a homicidal mummy/alien, and the worst Halloween costume party ever.
The Dead Talk BackA dismal, odd film with screendom’s least convincing seance. Stay for the twist ending.
The UndeadRoger Corman’s take on demonology and time travel, with Halloween decorations used as authentic medieval props
September 7, 2015
‘Gladiator’ (Scott, 2000) and ‘Paths of Glory’ (Kubrick, 1957): Borrowed Scenes and a Polemic on Violence
Seán Easton runs a great blog about the echoes and themes of Classics in modern media, Centuries Coexist. He teaches at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota.
Originally posted on Centuries Coexist:
Ridley Scott’s Gladiator is widely (and accurately) seen as thecombination andrecreation of Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus (1960) and Anthony Mann’s Fall of the Roman Empire (1966). Important parts of the thebeginning and endingofScott’s film, however, are modeled on Kubrick’s World War...
August 13, 2015
July 7, 2015
Potent Quotables
“Who’d be an archaeologist? Spending months methodically scraping dirt from a thighbone with a brush thin enough to paint eyebrows on a Barbie- Indiana Jones never bothered with all that shit. I’d snap after 10 minutes and hurl it in the bin where it belongs.” –Charlie Brooker
Favorite word: Πρoβατoγνώμων (Probatognumon)- someone who is a good judge of sheep (Æschylus)
“It came to me then that we’re each something of a constant gardener of a million forgotten galaxies, a librarian of lost pla...
December 14, 2014
Torture and the Ancient Romans
A new article of mine about torture and its (changing) depiction in films about the ancient Romans has been published on The Awl: Now We Are Rome: Ancient Roman torture on film, and modern American torture in the news
I look specifically at “The Sign of the Cross” (1932), “The Fall of the Roman Empire” (1964) and HBO’s “Rome” (2005 & 2007). I also discuss the history of torture both in Rome and the US, and specifically about our troubling representation of torture in movies.
Filed under: Film,...
December 8, 2014
Pantheon named “Book of the Week”
My novel Pantheon has been named “Book of the Week” by the Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library. I’m very honored!
Filed under: New Hampshire, Pantheon Tagged: New Hampshire, pantheon
